This invention pertains to aerial spraying of agricultural crops and more specifically to a system adapted to deliver liquid insecticide or herbicide to the crops in a more uniform manner with less likelihood of drift than was formerly possible.
Aerial spraying of crops either by helicopter or spray plane has been fairly common. In most spraying systems, the material is fed from a manifold into nozzles which are designed hydraulically to break the material into a fairly fine spray which then falls onto the crop.
The use of a spray of this type requires that the material be applied on relatively calm days. Wind will cause considerable drift of the material. Use of pesticides becomes impossible on days with any appreciable wind which might cause the pesticide material to drift onto adjacent fields. Such drift of crop specific pesticides--those which are adapted to kill broad leaved plants but not corn, for example--may readily severely damage adjacent fields of soybeans or other crops having broad leaved plants.
Sprays may also be affected by small areas of thermal up draft or down draft which tend to cause an irregular distribution with undesirable areas of thin or thick application.
By use of the described invention, the discharge of the material in droplets as opposed to mist results in more even distribution over the expanse of the field and less drift of the material making possible reduced potential for damage.